"I will ask questions, but I will also inspect the accounts myself. I won't say it a third time." Wu Dong glanced at him. "Wei Mingfu, was it? I hear you spent eighteen years as the Jade Pavilion's head manager. Twenty years ago, Director of the Bureau of Artifacts Qiao Changyue fell from office. Did you know that, during his two months in office, only the Jade Pavilion handled a shipment of Heart Amber?"
Wei Mingfu froze for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh! That business. Your office sent a letter asking about it a few days ago, too. Lord Wu, for nearly thirty years, we've purchased six to ten jin of refined Heart Amber at the beginning of each year. Whether Lord Qiao held office for those two months really had nothing to do with us-you should be able to find the records at the prefectural offices, too. Before and after Lord Qiao's tenure, we always bought and sold Heart Amber this way."
"I know," Wu Dong said. "No one now knows more than I do about the initial destinations of all the Heart Amber produced over the past twenty years. Now I'm asking you: where did it go from your hands?"
"...Well, all sorts of places, and many are inconvenient to disclose." Wei Mingfu looked troubled. "Lord Wu, we've made legitimate purchases all these years, with all the proper documents, exactly like everyone else. Why single us out?"
"Since obtaining permission, the Jade Pavilion has purchased Heart Amber twenty-nine times. In the nine purchases before the renxu year, your manager had no dealings beyond the necessary with the Director of the Bureau of Artifacts. But in the renxu year, your manager and Qiao Changyue sat alone together for an entire afternoon in Room A-Seven of